Pope Makes Appeal for Peace, Forgiveness in New Year Address

VATICAN CITY — Saying that forgiveness is essential to lasting peace, Pope John Paul II used his New Year’s Day address to urge the world to make 1997 a year of love and reconciliation.

“Peace and forgiveness go together as an inseparable pair,” the pope said during a Mass on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pope’s homily elaborated on an earlier message he delivered in preparation for World Peace Day, which the Roman Catholic Church marks on the first day of the year.

The pontiff, in his Peace Day text, wrote that “one cannot remain a prisoner of the past . . . individuals and peoples need a sort of healing of memories so that past evils will not come back again.”

“Sometimes,” the pope wrote, “it is the only way out of situations marked by age-old and violent hatred.”

During the New Year Mass, speaking from the papal altar ringed by yellow, white and red flowers, the pope appealed to world leaders to bury past rivalries.

“We are approaching the end of a century in which the world, and especially Europe, has experienced much war and suffering,” the pontiff said. “We should be able to cross [the millennium] under the sign of peace.”

The 76-year-old pope, who had an appendectomy in October, appeared less fatigued during the two-hour Mass than during a series of Christmas events at the Vatican.

Wearing light yellow vestments, he walked slowly in the procession to the altar. He smiled briefly at some of the faithful reaching out to touch his hand.